


Of Misunderstood Dragons and Noble Men

by kythen



Series: SASO2017 Bonus Round Fills [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, SASO2017, dragons and knights, giant lizard tendou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 19:55:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11168964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: Being a dragon was possibly the best thing to ever happen to him.





	Of Misunderstood Dragons and Noble Men

**Author's Note:**

> > _Prompt: A knight is sent to rescue a prince from a dragon. Little did they know the prince IS the dragon_

Ushijima the brave. Ushijima the valiant. They've sung songs about him and now that Tendou sees him up close, he can see why.  
  
"So," Tendou says.  
  
"Where's the prince?" Ushijima demands, his sword drawn and pointed straight at Tendou's neck.  
  
"Okay," Tendou tries again. "It seems that there may have been a misunderstanding."  
  
Tendou shifts, moving slowly enough that Ushijima doesn't get any ideas about plunging his sword into the closest thing that moves, which is incidentally Tendou. He stares down the length of his snout at Ushijima, folding in his wings behind him and tucking his forearms under his massive body until he is almost on eye level with him. Ushijima doesn't so much as flinch, holding his sword steady, its deadly tip polished sharp and ready to kill.  
  
"Don't freak out," Tendou says carefully, the most serious he has been since forever, he thinks, "but I am Prince Satori."  
  
It had been a curse.  
  
Or a blessing, in Tendou's personal opinion.  
  
He had offended someone powerful and important—which totally wasn't his fault. People just got offended too easily around Tendou. They get offended by the way he speaks, the way he looks, the way he moves, et cetera, et cetera. So when this powerful, important, and apparently magical someone had gotten offended by some arbitrary characteristic of Tendou, they had decided to do away with him entirely by turning him into a hideous dragon and banishing him into the mountains.  
  
Good riddance, they had said.  
  
"Good riddance," Tendou had repeated within the vast cavern of his new mountain home, his dragon heart thudding loudly in his scaly chest. "I'm free."  
  
Tendou never thought that anyone in the castle would miss him, let alone send the best knight in the realm out to search for him. He had spent his days since The Happy Incident lazing about in the mountains, hunting wild animals in the vicinity, and generally being unobtrusive. After all, he was a dragon now and it would majorly suck if poachers or well-meaning dragon exterminators were to hunt him down. He didn't want to kill anyone if it could be avoided. It seemed like a pain.  
  
He didn't want to kill Ushijima either, even though he had hunted Tendou down and found him. It just seems that he didn't get the memo about the dragon and the prince being one and the same before he went traipsing into the mountains. Tendou wonders how much they offered to pay him for it or if he was one of those rare types that did things for honour, glory, and the good of the kingdom.  
  
"Uh, do you want to go back now?" Tendou asks Ushijima. "Sorry for the inconvenience, your princess is in another castle and all, yada yada."  
  
"I'm looking for a prince," Ushijima tells him. "Not a princess."  
  
"No, you see, I am _the_ prince and I'm also _the_ dragon," Tendou explains slowly. "And I don't want to go back."  
  
"How do I know that you're not lying?"  
  
Tendou exhales in a long stream of hot air and his breath ruffles Ushijima's hair, blowing back his fringe from his face. Ushijima doesn't quite scrunch up his nose, even though Tendou knows that his breath isn't exactly pleasant, but he does narrow his eyes against the wind. He still hasn't lowered his sword.  
  
"Look, Sir Ushijima, everyone and their mother knows this story. Prince Satori the Terrible was turned into a dragon and exiled from the kingdom. They don't bother me and I don't bother them. We have a mutual agreement."  
  
"The King sent me to come rescue you."  
  
"Rescue me?" Tendou's eyebrows would have jumped up into his hairline, if he still had eyebrows or a hairline. "He wished me well before I left. I still get letters from him sometimes. Wanna see?"  
  
"He spoke to me in person before an audience. He wants his son back."  
  
"Well, he sure changed his mind quick," Tendou remarks, slouching and then straightening his neck up again quickly when he realises how close he had come to impaling himself on Ushijima's sword. "Uh, Sir Ushijima? Could you put that away? I'm not going to attack you or anything."  
  
Ushijima looks at him carefully and he must see something convincing in Tendou because he actually does lower his sword, keeping it ready at his side instead of at Tendou's neck. With that gone, Tendou lowers his head onto his forearms, blinking at Ushijima through slitted eyes.  
  
"So? What did he say?"  
  
"He spoke of how much he misses you in the castle," Ushijima reports, something questioning in his eyes. "He is ageing and he wants his heir back by his side."  
  
"That's not him," Tendou says.  
  
Ushijima takes that remarkably in stride. "Why would you say that?"  
  
"I'm the heir in name only. My dad and I always intended for Tsutomu to be the heir when he came of age. Did something happen to Tsutomu?"  
  
"Prince Tsutomu is well."  
  
"Then you have a potential political plot in your hands, Sir Ushijima. They must have done something to my dad," Tendou muses. "Not that that's any of my business now. These days, I'm just a dragon."  
  
Ushijima frowns. "If you know of something amiss in court, you should step in to intervene."  
  
"No way. I'm a retired prince." Tendou turns away from Ushijima, waving his tail languidly at him. "Court affairs don't matter to me now."  
  
"They matter if your life is at stake."  
  
"Is it?" Tendou asks, looking back at Ushijima pointedly. "Are you still going to stick that sword in me?" He bares his teeth in a dragon smile, showing his knife-sharp fangs, as Ushijima seems to ponder this.  
  
"You should go back to the castle with me," Ushijima finally concludes.  
  
"What for?"  
  
"To set things straight."  
  
"Helloooo? Are you even listening to me, Sir Ushijima?" Tendou asks incredulously. "I'm not going back."  
  
"If we leave now, we could still make it by nightfall."  
  
"Listen to meeeee," Tendou drags out.  
  
"Prince Tendou," Ushijima tells him seriously, "if you really are him, you have a duty to the realm to keep the kingdom in order."  
  
"Oh heavens," Tendou looks to the ceiling of his cavern beseechingly, "you're one of those noble types, aren't you?"  
  
"I am of noble blood, yes."  
  
Tendou gawks at Ushijima and sees no glint of mischief in his eyes, no amused curl of his lip. He is completely serious about this. Noble blood indeed.  
  
But somewhere deep down within him, Tendou wishes that he had met someone like Ushijima growing up in the castle. Maybe he would have wanted to stay.  
  
"Okay," Tendou finds himself saying. He straightens up, his blood humming loudly in his veins. He is _intrigued_ despite himself by this man of honour and strength who had come riding into his mountains on nothing but his poor horse and a request from a false king. "You know what? I'll do it. I'll come with you to the castle. Heck, I'm a dragon now. I have all the time in the world and I want to see how this story ends."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Find me here: [tumblr](http://kythen.tumblr.com) / [twitter](http://twitter.com/catcrowcalls)


End file.
